Buried Child
by Shadowsong1
Summary: Four years after his town is destroyed, Jet begins to form a new family
1. Chapter 1

**Buried Child**

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The plot is the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement intended.

**Chapter 1**

Jet had been wandering for close to four years, drifting from town to town, stealing food and clothing when he needed it and no one would give it to him, begging for sword lessons and survival tips from anyone who looked like they might be even remotely friendly to a loner war orphan.

Enemy troops he sabotaged, in any way he could. It wasn't much, but it was the only way he could fight back.

So when he saw the little plume of smoke through the trees, he approached it, figuring it would be soldiers of either army, and he could get a little training or a little justice. He was still for a moment, then quietly inched along the snow. It was deep and fresh enough to muffle his steps, but he didn't want to take any chances.

When he guessed he was about five yards away from the campfire, he found a suitable tree and scrambled up, shimmying along the branches until he was close enough to see the--

--not soldiers. Instead, a small, very thin boy maybe a year younger than Jet himself, wrapped up in mismatched red and green rags was huddled as close as he could safely get to a small campfire. His feet were wrapped in more rags--if he'd ever had shoes, they'd been gone for a while.

_He's like me_, Jet thought. He'd run across other war orphans before, but none of them had been alone, the way he and this tattered stranger were. Most of them had siblings, or other kids from their towns, or even aunts or uncles or grandparents to look after them. A few had even invited him to stay. He had, for a while, but he'd never really felt a part of their families. This lone orphan, on the other hand...

Jet almost never thought about how lonely his life was, choosing instead to focus on his bitter, vengeful brand of justice. But he _was_ lonely, and this other boy was probably lonely, too. He certainly wasn't dressed for the weather, and looked like he hadn't been able to find much food. He could teach the kid what he'd learned over the last four years, and help him steal some shoes, at least. And maybe they could stick together for a while. Then they wouldn't have to be lonely anymore.

Once decided upon this course of action, Jet slid down the tree and approached the boy's fire. "Hey."

The smaller boy jerked awake in an instant, spinning around with a stick from his fire held in one hand and a short knife in the other. The knife had something written on it, but Jet couldn't see what it was from this distance. Both weapons were shaking a little, the kid was shivering with either fear or cold or both, eyes wide with definite fright.

Golden eyes.

_Fire _eyes.

Jet's own eyes widened and he took a step back, reaching for his own weapons. He wasn't that good with the hook-swords yet, but he could easily take a half-starved, half-frozen--

_Half_.

Jet paused.

He wasn't an idiot or an innocent. Some of the war orphans he'd met had been mixed, politely called "soldier's children." It had taken a while for Jet to understand the brutal crimes lying behind that delicate euphemism. That would explain why he was alone, too. The "soldier's children" Jet had seen before had been on the fringes of their groups, tolerated but not welcome. They almost never had siblings.

_He really _is_ all alone, even more than I am_.

Jet relaxed and pulled his hand away from his swords, spreading them out in front of himself. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. My name's Jet."

The younger boy watched him suspiciously for a minute, then suddenly let out a slightly raspy yelp--his fire stick had burned down to his hand. He dropped the knife as well, starting to cough a little. Jet took this opportunity to approach, keeping his hands out, so the other boy could see he wasn't holding a weapon. "It's okay," he repeated. "I'm not going to hurt you. My name's Jet. What's yours?"

He caught his breath, and then was quiet for several minutes. "L-Lee," he finally stammered out.

"It's nice to meet you," Jet said. "Can I sit here?"

Lee hesitated another long moment, then started coughing again. Finally, he nodded.

Jet settled down on the opposite side of the campfire, poking it up a bit. It wasn't really enough to keep even a kid Lee's size warm. The younger boy just watched him, every so othen breaking into another coughing fit, until he finally fell asleep again, curling up so close to the fire he was practically inside it. Jet waited another few minutes, then went around the fire to check on the kid, mostly to make sure his hands and feet weren't frostbitten too bad.

Lee was somewhat lucky; he was underweight and had a fever, but no frostbite. It could have been a lot worse. Jet breathed a sigh of relief and stayed close to the kid, staring up at the stars and sharing body heat. Less than a half hour later, he had joined his new friend in sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The plot is the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement intended.

**Chapter 2**

When Jet woke the next morning, Lee was already up. He was crouched on the other side of the clearing, staring intently at something. Before the older boy could ask what he was doing, he moved, very fast, swinging a sling around somewhat clumsily and throwing a rock into the underbrush. Judging by the way he slumped, he'd missed his intended target.

"Morning," Jet said. Lee jumped and turned to face him, still somewhat wary. "What were you trying for?"

"D-dunno what it was," he rasped. "Some kind of r-rodent?"

The older boy nodded. "Well, I have food." He didn't have much, but he could steal or beg some much more easily than Lee could hunt with his sling.

Lee bit his lip, hesitating a minute, then started coughing again. Jet frowned, trying to remember if he'd sounded better or worse the night before. "You want some?" he finally asked, when the lack of talking began to get awkward.

Before he could stop himself, Lee nodded eagerly, then flushed and ducked his head. Jet grinned at him and dug in his bag for the bread he'd stolen a couple days ago. It was a little hard, given the time and the cold, but it was still good. He broke off a chunk and tossed it to the younger boy, who unwrapped his hands from their makeshift gloves and tore into it. Still grinning, Jet munched on his own share. Fire-eyes or not, he wanted to keep this kid. He was sure about that now. He decided to let the younger boy finish his breakfast before asking, dug out a bowl from his bag, and started melting snow. They'd need water. Everyone needed water. Even firespawn.

The kid finished quickly, and Jet gave him another two minutes before talking. "Listen, Lee," he finally said, then waited for the other boy to look up. "You wanna stick together for a while? I mean, it's not easy being alone. And I could show you how to get food and stuff."

Something unreadable flashed across Lee's face, and he looked away, staring down into the fire. "D-don't think that's a good idea," he replied.

"How come?"

Lee was silent for a long minute, then started coughing again. Jet passed him some of the water. When he caught his breath, he said, "I did a b-bad thing. Th-they're hunting me."

_What kind of bad thing could a half-starved half-frozen half-breed eleven-year-old do?_ Jet thought. "That's okay. I can handle myself." He grinned, indicating his swords. _So I'm not that good with them yet. Big deal. The kid's just overreacting to something he did, probably never misbehaved until then and now he thinks the world's out to get him. Probably whoever caught him overreacted, too, 'cause he's half. People do that. It's stupid. Just 'cause someone's father was swine doesn't mean that that someone is, too_.

Lee blinked at him. "B-but..."

"Look, whoever's chasing you? I'll protect you from them, long as we run together. Okay? Okay."

Lee still looked a little unsure, but he dropped his eyes and nodded. "Okay."

Jet grinned at the younger boy, pleased with himself. _If other kids are this easy, I'll be able to put together a whole _army_. An army or kids who've been hurt by the Firenation. We can fight back. For _real.

Lee had started coughing again, and Jet's grin slipped a bit. _First I have to get him shoes and better clothes. An army is no good if half of it is sick_. "C'mon," he said out loud, standing up and offering the younger boy his hand. "We need more bread. I'll show you how to get it."

The younger boy didn't take his hand. But he didn't hesitate, either. Jet sighed, put out the campfire, and started them off toward the nearest town.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The plot is the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement intended.

**Chapter 3**

Jet had left Lee in the campsite they'd been using for the last three days. He'd helped the younger boy steal boots and a thick heavy coat, ludicrously big on him, but it hadn't done him much good. He was still coughing, no better than he had been when they'd first met, maybe worse. So he'd built up the fire and gone off to try and find blankets or medicine or someone else to recruit to help him take care of Lee. _Because I am _not _losing my army before it's even started_.

Hearing footsteps, he went up a tree to watch. The source of the footsteps proved to be a little girl, about his and Lee's age. She had a basket, and was stripping the inner bark from the dormant wild cherry trees and placing it in it.

_Is she alone, like us? Maybe I can recruit that girl, she can help me take care of Lee_...Jet waited a few minutes, then came down from the trees and approached her.

When he stepped on a twig, she spun around, holding out the knife between them. She relaxed slightly when she saw the stranger was a kid her age, but only slightly. She didn't lower the knife. "Who are you? What do you want?"

Jet held up his hands, the way he had with Lee when they'd first met, to show he wasn't reaching for or holding any kind of weapon. "My name's Jet. I need help, my friend is sick."

The girl studied him, her knife not wavering even a little bit. "You're refugees?"

_Sort of_. "Yes."

"You're alone, you and your friend?"

He nodded.

She was silent for another minute. "Put your swords down and kick them over to me."

_Aak!_ Jet hesitated, in no way comfortable with being unarmed. _She won't help you unless you do it. And maybe she can use that knife for more than carving up trees. And Lee _needs_ the help_. He dropped his swords onto the ground and kicked them over to the girl.

She bent down to pick them up, not taking her eyes or her knife off of him. "Okay," she said, balancing the swords in her basket and the basket on her arm. "Show me your friend. Keep your hands where I can see them."

Nervously watching the trees for any type of enemy, Jet cautiously started off, keeping his hands open and above his shoulders. The girl got much closer; he felt a point of pressure through his clothes, between his shoulderblades. He swallowed. _Maybe I asked the wrong person to help me_...

He said none of this aloud, just led her to the campsite where he'd left Lee. The younger boy was still there, huddled next to the fire in his overlarge coat. He looked up when he heard them coming and launched to his feet, pulling out his knife and watching the girl, wide-eyed. The effect of this attempted defense of his friend was somewhat spoiled when he started coughing again and nearly dropped his knife. Finally, the girl lowered her own knife. She ran over to Lee and started looking him over, checking his temperature and resting her head on his chest to listen to him breathe. She looked like she knew what she was doing, at least.

After a couple minutes of this, she looked up at Jet. "I need to take him home with me. My mom's better at this than I am, and that's where the medicine I think he needs is, anyway. Plus, he shouldn't be living outside like this while he's sick and it's this cold and wet out. You can come too, I guess."

"Okay," Jet said, relieved and a little disappointed. _She's still got her mom. She won't want to come with us_.

Lee, however, shook his head. "No."

She stared at him a minute. "You're _sick_. You need to be taken care of."

He shook his head again. "_No_. Th--" He started coughing, interrupting himself.

"I told you, Lee," Jet said. "I'll protect you from whoever's chasing you. Okay?"

"And I have a place where you can hide anyway," the girl said firmly. "But you're _not_ staying out here in the snow until you're better."

Lee flinched, and caved. Jet helped Lee up. "Lead the way?" he asked the girl, who nodded and led them off towards the town.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The plot is the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement intended.

**Chapter 4**

Jet and Lee stayed with the girl--her name was Song, they found out not long after--for close to two weeks. She and her mother refused to let them go until the younger boy had stopped coughing completely. They then made sure both boys had warm clothes that fit, and gave them plenty of food to take with them.

They made it through the rest of the winter, traveling around and searching for other children to join their army. Jet eventually picked a random occupied valley, surrounded by thick forests. They were close to exactly the same distance from the North and South Poles, where hopefully the winters would be easier on the other boy.

Jet explained his Master Plan early that spring. "We're gonna get rid of all the swine here in the valley. We're gonna recruit other orphans, like us to help. And we're gonna kill them all. The Fire soldiers, I mean. Not our recruits."

Lee looked very upset. "U-um. Okay, okay, th-that's a good goal, I guess..."

"What's wrong?"

"I...c-can I not b-be directly involved in the...the hurting people part? I-I mean, every army n-needs support troops, I'm already m-much better with my sling than I w-was when we met, I c-can keep you supplied, c-can I _please_ n-not hurt anyone again?"

Jet blinked at him. _So, that's the Bad Thing he did. He probably just hit another kid on the playground and left a bruise or something. Stupid people overreacting to his face, it's not his fault!_ "Sure, I guess."

Lee was visibly relieved. "Okay. Okay, th-thanks. This is r-r-really important to me."

"I can see that."

"So, we're gonna live here now?"

Jet nodded. "Until this area's free, anyway. Then we'll move on." He grinned at his friend. "We'll live up in the trees."

"That could be fun," Lee said. Now that he'd been reassured he wouldn't have to participate _directly_ in the necessary violence, he seemed to be starting to warm up to this idea.

Jet nodded, but his face darkened. "It's also very serious," he said.

Lee closed off again, the little bit of brightness dimming after the rebuke. "I know. I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

Lee didn't answer, just hugged his knees to his chest.

Jet sighed. "Come on, let's start building."

Lee nodded and uncurled.

_Today's gonna be _so _much fun_, Jet thought, sighing faintly. Lee had good days and bad days, mood-wise, and the bad days seemed to go on _forever_. He reached out for and took the younger boy's hand, and led him to the tree he thought was best for building the center of their guerrilla city.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The plot is the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement intended.

**Chapter 5**

Two years passed, and Jet and Lee had yet to manage to recruit anyone else to stay in their treehouse city for more than a couple weeks. Jet had just turned fifteen, and Lee would be fourteen at some point at the end of the summer. The younger boy had remained quiet and withdrawn, though he was either having fewer bad days or hiding them better.

Their days had fallen into a somewhat monotonous pattern. Jet would scout around the valley, moving out of the woods and towards the town, plotting sabotage and robbing anyone in Fire colors, while Lee would drift deeper into the woods with his sling and his knife, returning usually with a deerhare or two and some roots and berries he'd learned were edible over the years.

Lee had always insisted on trying strange plants on himself. Jet had allowed this until one time, the year before, when Lee had tested some slightly-bitter berries and been sick for a month, coming close to dying during the worst parts. "We've figured out enough to have some variety. We don't need any more." The younger boy had quietly agreed, and stuck to things he'd already determined were safe.

It was a rather glorious spring day when their pattern changed. Jet had been stalking a small group of soldiers for a while, waiting for a chance when he could ambush one or two of them and pick them off--reckless and determined he was, but not so arrogant as to think he could take out twelve well-trained adult fighters all by himself.

Finally, finally he saw an opportunity. One of the soldiers split off from the main group and headed towards the stream. Jet grinned, and ghosted after him, staying in the treetops.

Once they were a safe distance away, he pounced, leaping out of the trees with his swords drawn. He managed to surprise the soldier and get a good slash across the man's back before he spun around and lashed back. By Jet's ill luck, this soldier was a firebender, and he was now too close to dodge fully. He yelled when the blast connected with his side, and struck back wildly, aiming for the soldier's eyes. He failed to connect, but the soldier lost his balance when stepping backwards and fell into the stream, buying Jet some time to escape. He fled back to base, then crawled into the central house to see how bad the burns were and wait for Lee.

They weren't as bad as he'd thought at first. His skin was red and blistering, but not blackened. He sagged a little in relief, and crawled out again to get some cold water to rinse them out and hopefully deaden the pain. He found the supply of bandages they'd stolen a while ago, and noted that they were starting to run low--he and Lee ran through them fairly quickly, between his direct fighting and Lee sometimes tangling with various kinds of wolves and bears for what he'd hunted. He made a mental note to steal some more soon, and set about cleaning and wrapping his latest injuries.

Lee returned around sunset, also a bit scratched up, with a deerhare. His eyes widened slightly when he saw the bandages--while Jet's burns weren't serious, they were fairly extensive, covering his right forearm and a good portion of his torso. "What _happened_?" he asked, setting the deerhare down.

"Didn't do the research," Jet said, a little sheepishly. "Cornered one of the firebenders without setting up for it right."

"How bad are you hurt?"

"It's not as bad as it looks. They're just blistering a bit."

Lee relaxed a little, clearly relieved. "I'll look at them once I'm done with dinner," he promised. Jet didn't object--while he had cleaned and wrapped them himself, it was always better to have someone else do it. Pain and awkwardness of placement made it easy to do a slipshod job of treating one's own injuries. Instead, he just settled back to watch Lee put dinner together.

He noticed little things, things he'd started gradually noticing a few months after they left Song's. The way Lee moved, the way everything about him was long and narrow, sharp, even--he didn't eat much, which left him fairly skinny. The way he gave each task his undivided focus, almost to a point where it was a bad thing. He wasn't fanatically opposed to the Firenation, like Jet was, but, having accepted the task of supplying Jet and his still-hypothetical guerrilla army, he devoted himself to it with a single-mindedness that was endearing, putting his assigned tasks above everything else, including care for himself. So Jet had to watch for that, especially in the winter--while it didn't get particularly cold or snow much here, winter was still unpleasant for the younger boy.

Lee wore his hair long, pulled up in a tail at the top of his head. For some reason, the way the tail twitched back and forth when he walked drew Jet's attention like very little else. He even dreamed about it sometimes, Lee's hair, dreamed about pulling it free from the tail and running his hands through it. These dreams always left him hot, and tight, and unsatisfied, and guilty. Things like he dreamed about were Not Done, not in the Earth Kingdom, and if he _did_ them, well, people might be less willing to join his army.

He brooded on this for a while, watching Lee put together their meal, and while they ate.

And then Lee came to unravel the bandages and check on the burns underneath. That hot, tight, guilty feeling spread over Jet again, and the younger boy paused, noting the source of it. He looked up at Jet, expression unreadable. Jet whispered something that may have been his name, then reached up and twisted Lee's tail in his hand. The younger boy closed his eyes, unresisting. Taking that as permission, Jet pulled him down and kissed him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The plot is the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement intended.

**Chapter Six**

Lee was already awake when Jet woke the next morning, curled up next to a window. He hadn't dressed yet. "Hey," Jet said quietly, still wrapped in the drowsy elation of the night before.

"Morning," Lee replied, just as quietly. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah. You?"

He shrugged.

Some of the drowsy elation slipped away at that. _Why isn't he as happy as I am?_ "Lee?"

"Hm?"

"About last night..."

Lee flushed a little, and reached up to return his hair to its usual tail. "Yeah?"

Jet hesitated, fiddling with the end of one of his bandages. "We...well, do you want to...again?"

"We shouldn't've last night. You're hurt."

"I know," Jet said, flushing himself. "I meant...well, maybe not now, but...sometime?"

"...if that's what you want," the younger boy replied.

Jet watched as Lee let go of his hair and it spilled down his back. "I do want. It's just...it's not...done. What we did. Between two boys, I mean. I'm just worried that...if we do it again...and I really want to...well...people might not want to join my army anymore."

Lee looked slightly confused, but he nodded. "Whatever you think is best."

"It's just...I want this...I really do..." Jet fidgeted for a while, trying to come up with a way around this problem. While he thought, Lee uncurled from his position by the window and started to get dressed. Pale, pretty Lee with his long hair and angled face and skinniness..._In the right clothes...maybe... _

"Could you pretend to be a girl?" Jet asked.

Lee whirled and stared at him. "What?"

"I-I mean, so we can do this. Be together like this. You could pass for a girl, in the right clothes, I could get you a dress, you could braid your hair maybe with some ribbons instead of that tail you always wear it in, maybe we could call you Lei, that's a girl's name and it wouldn't be forever, just 'til we beat the swine and we don't need the army anymore, then you can go back to being a boy and who cares what anyone thinks..." Jet trailed off, aware he was babbling.

Lee was still staring at him, face unreadable, eyes glittering slightly. After a long, awkward moment, he sighed and closed his eyes. "If that's what you want," he whispered.

Jet untangled himself from the blankets, grinning, and went over to hug Lee, and kiss him, a little awkwardly. "I'll get you a dress next time I go into town," he promised. The younger boy nodded, and, after a minute, quietly rested his head on Jet's shoulder.


End file.
